Entranced Earth preceded by Maranhao 66

Director: Glauber Rocha

1967 / 118min / DCP

In the fictional Latin American country of El Dorado, riven by political struggles and social upheaval, intellectual journalist Paulo Martins observes the bitter rivalry between two opposed candidates for office—an opportunistic “populist” and a rock-ribbed conservative—alike only in their corruption and venality. A film equally wary of entrenched elites and the alleged wisdom of the easily led-by-the-nose masses, its style pivoting unexpectedly between baroque formalism and neorealist roughness, Entranced Earth is a cutting commentary on Brazil, the right-wing military junta then ruling it, and the entrenched power dynamics that had led to that current sorry state of affairs. Screens with Maranhão 66, Rocha’s dialectical documentary report on the inauguration of José Sarney in the impoverished state of Maranhão.

Introduction by Richard Peña, Professor Emeritus, Columbia University, Director Emeritus, NYFF, on Sunday May 25th